For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Job 17:1-9

1 My spirit is broken,
    my days are cut short,
    the grave awaits me.
2 Surely mockers surround me;
    my eyes must dwell on their hostility.

3 ‘Give me, O God, the pledge you demand.
    Who else will put up security for me?
4 You have closed their minds to understanding;
    therefore you will not let them triumph.
5 If anyone denounces their friends for reward,
    the eyes of their children will fail.

6 ‘God has made me a byword to everyone,
    a man in whose face people spit.
7 My eyes have grown dim with grief;
    my whole frame is but a shadow.
8 The upright are appalled at this;
    the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.
9 Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways,
    and those with clean hands will grow stronger.

A. Find Out

1. What does Job feel about his state and why? v.1,2
2. What does he feel is needed, from whom & why? v.3
3. What has God done with others? v.4
4. What principle does he declare in his argument? v.5
5. What has God done and with what result? v.6,7
6. What outcomes does Job see around him? v.8,9

B. Think:

1. Why, according to Job, do people think badly of him?
2. How is this worked out?

C. Comment:

This is a difficult passage. It starts by reiterating what Job said in v.22 of the previous chapter, that he only expects death (v.1) and because of that he feels broken. He is just conscious of those around him who mock him and are hostile to him (v.2), a person on the lips of everyone (v.6) who think badly of him. He puts this down to the fact that, in his eyes, God has closed the minds of such people (v.4a)

He feels that for his life to be redeemed from this awful situation God wants something from him (a pledge like a pawnbroker demands) yet he himself is incapable of providing it (implied) and no one else seems to be able to help, so it is going to have to be God Himself who will provide whatever is needed (v.3).

This is quite remarkable for this has to be the first awareness that precedes salvation – that we are helpless! God has shut people’s minds to him (v.4) but because He is for Job (implied) he will not let such people’s words prevail and triumph over him (v.4b). He will not think of denouncing his friends (v.5a) because that would be unrighteous and would bring a curse on any future generation (v.5b). Yet he feels so bad about himself (v.7). He is aware that those who are upright feel differently about him – that they feel annoyed at the way the ungodly speak about him (v.8) and yet those who are righteous will hold on to that and grow stronger (v.9)

D. Application:

1. When we see one suffering do we blame them or seek to understand them with compassion?
2. How we respond to others reveals a lot about us.

Passage: Job 17:10-16

10 ‘But come on, all of you, try again!
    I will not find a wise man among you.
11 My days have passed, my plans are shattered.
    Yet the desires of my heart
12 turn night into day;
    in the face of the darkness light is near.
13 If the only home I hope for is the grave,
    if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness,
14 if I say to corruption, “You are my father,”
    and to the worm, “My mother” or “My sister”.
15 where then is my hope –
    who can see any hope for me?
16 Will it go down to the gates of death?
    Will we descend together into the dust?’

A. Find Out

1. What does he challenge his friends to do? v.10
2. How does he summarise what has happened to him? v.11
3. How have they been seeking to bring hope to him? v.12
4. Yet what only is it that he sees before him? v.13,14
5. What does he conclude? v.15,16

B. Think:

1. What is Job’s complaint against his friends in these verses?
2. Why does he feel hopeless?

C. Comment:

The first half of this chapter is almost philosophical but the second half is a direct challenge to his friends. He challenges his friends; come on try again (v.10a) there appears to be not a wise man among you (v.10b). My life is shattered and (implied) you haven’t been able to help me at all (v.11). Almost in an aside he chides them for saying there is hope, there is light, when all he can see is darkness (v.12).

Look, he says, what sort of hope have I got? If all I have before me is the grave (v.13), if all I can expect is the body to rot (v.14) what hope is that for me? (v.15) Is that all I’m going down to death with (v.16), the awareness of this and nothing else (implied)?

We may not be very excited at first sight by such a negative passage of Scripture but it is a very real plea. Essentially Job is saying, is there any one of you who can offer me genuine hope?  All I can see before me is impending death. My body is in a terrible state and I can only see it getting worse in the future; death and the corruption or rotting of the body is all that I have before me. Can’t you say something that will give me a better vision of the future than this?

It is at this point that the Christian faith brings real hope. Hope for us is ‘a confident assurance’ of what WILL be. Because Jesus has come, revealed himself, died and risen from the dead and ascended back to heaven, we can be assured that we too have a future with him in heaven – because he has said so!

D. Application:

1. We have a confident assurance through Scripture for our future.
2. Jesus has guaranteed our future with him in heaven. Hallelujah!